Inside The Times

Published: August 23, 2011

International

OPPOSITION LEADER'S DEATH

WEAKENS CANADIAN PARTY

Canada's political opposition was significantly weakened after the death of the country's New Democratic Party leader, Jack Layton. Mr. Layton, who was 61, had unexpectedly devastated Quebec's separatist movement in Parliament during an election in May and emerged as the first head of the New Democrats to become the leader of the official opposition. Page A6

RAID DEATH TOLL PASSES 600

The death toll from a cattle raid in an estranged region of weeks-old South Sudan rose significantly, with the United Nations saying more than 600 people had been killed in a retaliatory attack that has raised fears of ethnic instability in the deeply impoverished country. Original reports had the death toll at 58, but the United Nations said the flow of information had been hampered by vast distances and poor logistics. Page A4

PROPERTY DISPUTE IN KOREA

North Korea gave South Korean tourism officials 72 hours to leave a mountain resort, saying it would start auctioning off South Korean-owned hotels, restaurants and other remnants of what used to be a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. North Korea gave the ultimatum after talks failed to resolve a dispute over whether tourism in the resort should resume and under what conditions. Page A9

TALIBAN COMMANDER KILLED

Angry villagers stoned to death a local Taliban commander and his bodyguard in southern Afghanistan after the militants killed a 60-year-old man accused of aiding the government, officials said. It was a rare reversal of brutality aimed at the Taliban and suggests a growing sense of security in an area where the insurgency has lost ground to NATO forces. Page A6

National

SUPREME COURT TO REVISIT

USE OF EYEWITNESS EVIDENCE

Every year, more than 75,000 eyewitnesses identify suspects in criminal investigations. Those identifications are wrong about a third of the time, studies suggest. In November, the Supreme Court will return to the question of what the Constitution has to say about the use of eyewitness evidence.
Page A14

PSYCHIC FACES FRAUD CHARGES

The promise of good karma did not come cheaply for devotees of a South Florida psychic, Rose Marks, whom federal prosecutors have portrayed as the matriarch of a fortune-telling family with a lust for luxury. The government said that Ms. Marks and nine others cheated customers of $40 million in cash, goods and property. Page A16

New York

A SURPRISE RESIGNATION

FROM COLUMBIA'S DEAN

Michele M. Moody-Adams, the dean of Columbia College, abruptly resigned over what she called administrative changes that would diminish or eliminate her authority, leaving the Ivy League campus without a leader for its undergraduate division two weeks before the start of classes. Page A18

Science

RESEARCHERS EXAMINE BONES

AND THEIR ROLE IN FERTILITY

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center discovered that the skeleton seems to help regulate blood sugar. Now the team, led by Dr. Gerard Karsenty, a geneticist at Columbia, has found that bone may play an unexpected role in reproduction. Page D5

Business

OPPOSITION TO EURO BONDS

FROM GERMAN POLITICIANS

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has faced harsh criticism for being too passive in the face of Europe's debt crisis. But members of her own party and the Bundesbank made it clear just how hard it would be for her to pursue any solution that asked German taxpayers to sacrifice for the sake of European unity. Page B6

DEBATE OVER SCHOOL'S GIFT

A $10 million gift from Lowell Milken to the U.C.L.A. School of Law has set off an internal debate at the school. While many faculty members welcomed the money, one of the university's top business law professors has said the gift poses deep ethical problems given Mr. Milken's run-in with securities regulators two decades ago. Page B1

FORD AND TOYOTA TEAM UP

Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor said that they would jointly develop a gas-electric hybrid fuel system for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles aimed at keeping larger models affordable as the automakers work to meet stricter fuel-economy standards. The resulting hybrid trucks would go on sale later this decade, they said.
Page B3

Arts

MEMOIR ON GROWING UP

IN COLONIAL AFRICA

In her new memoir, Alexandra Fuller creates portraits of her mother, father and various eccentric relatives that are as indelible and resonant as the family portraits in classic contemporary memoirs. She describes how her parents met and fell in love and traces their peregrinations across the continent of Africa. Page C1

Sports

UNITED STATES WON'T BID

FOR 2020 SUMMER GAMES

The United States Olympic Committee will not submit a bid to host the 2020 Summer Games, meaning the Olympics will not be held in the United States for at least 11 more years. The decision by the Olympic committee was conveyed last weekend to the American cities interested in bidding for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Page B10